Age and Ovariectomy Abolish Beneficial Effects of Female Sex on Rat Ventricular Myocytes Exposed to Simulated Ischemia and Reperfusion
Figure 7
OVX promoted spontaneous contractions and Ca2+ transients in ischemia when compared to sham-operated controls.
Cells were paced with trains of 20 pulses, delivered at a frequency of 4 Hz, followed by a 2.5 seconds delay to observe spontaneous activity. A. Representative examples of stimulated and spontaneous Ca2+ transients (top) and contractions (bottom) recorded in an OVX female myocyte after 5 minutes of exposure to ischemia. The first three beats are stimulated beats and the spontaneous responses are shown by the arrows. B. Spontaneous activity (Ca2+ transients and contractions) occurred in 71.4% of OVX cells. In contrast, spontaneous activity was not observed in myocytes from sham-operated animals. The * denotes significantly different from values in sham-operated females (p<0.05; n = 7 sham cells and 7 OVX cells).